A New Generation of Skincare
Over the past few years, collagen and hyaluronic acid have become rapidly growing buzzwords within the skincare industry, being mentioned in numerous, premium new product launches and widely lauded by beauty journalists and influencers. According to market research company Mintel, collagen is the most searched beauty term and over the past 3 years, 7,000 skincare […]
By elenzia / April 12th 2021 / Blog
Over the past few years, collagen and hyaluronic acid have become rapidly growing buzzwords within the skincare industry, being mentioned in numerous, premium new product launches and widely lauded by beauty journalists and influencers. According to market research company Mintel, collagen is the most searched beauty term and over the past 3 years, 7,000 skincare products have been launched worldwide with the word collagen in the product name.
But what do collagen and hyaluronic acid actually do within the skin to make a difference?
Collagen is a large, structural protein molecule made naturally in the dermis of the skin. Its primary function is to form a fibrous network, it is this network that makes your skin plump and provides a healthy skin texture, reducing visibility of fine lines and wrinkles. Due to natural ageing processes our ability to produce collagen decreases as we get older which, combined with the effects of sun exposure, means we have less. Studies have shown that the levels of collagen within our skin start to decline each year from as early as the age of 30.
Similarly, the global Hyaluronic Acid products market is projected to grow from $8.54bn in 2019 to $14.05bn by 2025, helped by big brands such as L’Oreal using the ingredient in their product marketing – remember the advert with Eva Longoria teaching you how to pronounce hyaluronic acid? The hyaluronic acid molecule can bind up to 1000 times its weight in water, meaning that this ingredient is key for skin hydration as it acts as a humectant holding water molecules inside your skin. Just like collagen, we produce hyaluronic acid naturally within our body, and as we age the rate at which it is produced decreases, contributing to dry skin and visible skin ageing.
Alongside collagen and hyaluronic acid sits elastin, a fibrous protein which is a major component of connective tissue. Elastin fibres can stretch to several times their length and then return to their original size. Elastin is responsible for the skin’s elasticity, the decrease in this key skin component as we age results is loose, sagging skin – something that none of us want!
One approach to combat the reduction in these three elements as we age, is to add these molecules to the surface of the skin, however research indicates that would be an ineffective strategy.
A study by J D Bos and M M Meinardi (The 500 Dalton rule for the skin penetration of chemical compounds and drugs) shows the scientific theory that the molecular weight of a compound must be under 500 Dalton to allow absorption into the skin, as molecules 500 Dalton and above cannot pass through the outermost layer of the epidermis (top layer of the skin) and therefore cannot make a positive change to the skin. In the book, Skincare by aesthetician and skincare influencer Caroline Hirons, Hirons explains the 500 Dalton rule when it comes to skincare (pages 269-270) and helpfully outlines some common skincare ingredients and their molecular weight, showing that collagen has a molecular weight of 15,000-50,000 Dalton, and hyaluronic acid has a molecular weight of anywhere between 6,000-1.5 million Dalton. This allows us to ask the question, is there any point using a skincare product that contains these ingredients if they cannot penetrate the skin?
So – if research shows that topically applying collagen and hyaluronic acid to the skin is not truly efficacious, then what is the next best thing?
Instead of spending the time trying to work out what the molecular weight of the ingredients within your skin are, look for key active ingredients such as signalling molecules that will stimulate your body’s natural production of collagen. A great example of a group of ingredients that do this are peptides. Peptides are amino acids that make up certain proteins needed by the skin and have been used in skincare products for over 20 years. Peptides can also penetrate the epidermis – meaning that they don’t just sit on top of the skin like topical collagen and hyaluronic acid – once they have penetrated the skin, they act as messengers, signalling to the skin cells to produce collagen. This means that they are working with the body to provide an efficacious solution to the natural ageing process of reduced collagen in the skin.
However, peptides certainly aren’t the only or newest signalling ingredient used in skincare
We are lucky enough to be present at a time when innovation within the skincare industry is booming. A prime example of that has stemmed from over a decade of medical and dermatological research, allowing the new generation of signalling molecules to be created – nano gold technology. Nano gold technology is a patented active ingredient consisting of tiny fragments of gold linked with ultra-low molecular weight hyaluronic acid.
From topical skincare, this new nano gold technology is clinically proven to activate your cell receptors to increase your body’s natural production of collagen, hyaluronic acid and elastin – the three components that are key to anti-ageing. This means that instead of applying these three ingredients topically to our skin and hoping they have a beneficial effect, we are working with our body to reverse the natural decline of the three components that are key to healthy, plump and firm skin. Not only is the science behind this new ingredient revolutionary, but it is also backed up by clinical trials proving its efficacy for ageing skin on the face, neck and décolleté, and reduction in the appearance of cellulite and skin tightening for the body.
This new generation of skincare using the patented Nano Gold Technology can be found exclusively in the Endor Technologies® skincare collection
Another trend to emerge from the skincare industry for 2021 is skinimalism. With the first lockdown putting a spanner in the works for our beauty routines now that we were no longer leaving the house, it has allowed us to pair back, reducing the amount of everyday make-up we were wearing and instead incentivised us to strive for optimal skin health and natural looking skin. We embraced our natural skin texture and reduced the number of serums and creams that we were using within our skincare routines, selecting hero products instead that we were confident would make a difference.
The closure of beauty salons and aesthetic clinics also encouraged the on-going trend of healthy ageing. The popular face-lift look from 10 years ago combined with frozen faces due to monthly Botox appointments were quickly becoming a thing of the past, instead consumers were opting for alternative treatments like baby Botox, or non-invasive skin tightening such as radio frequency or micro-needling. These treatments, coupled with a scaled back skincare routine using clinically proven efficacious ingredients that target our cell receptors, perfectly encompass the healthy ageing and skinimalism trends – allowing us to achieve our #skincaregoals of healthy, glowing, plump skin.
